Last week I posted this picture on my instagram feed. It was of Monkey boy and the presents that he received for his 10th birthday. This year he received not one but two helicopters so both him and Doggie boy will be able to play with the helicopters together.

Tiger girl too got a present as I felt it would be unfair if both her brothers received presents while she had none. She received a Hello Kitty supermarket play set and was thrilled to bits playing with the new toy.

Since everyone was getting a birthday present each and they couldn’t agree on going with Monkey boy’s preference for a tiramisu cake we decided to get slices of cake instead of a whole cake.

We ended up getting six slices of three different flavours- chocolate, strawberry and tiramisu. It wasn’t cheaper this way as the cost of the six slices was equivalent to the cost of a whole cake. However there was more variety this way and all the kids were satisfied with the choice of cake.

My eldest is now officially a tween and is moving into a new chapter of his life.

22 Comments

The individual slices are a good idea. There are also a lot of places doing great cupcakes too so that’s a solution as well. In our house, the person whose birthday it is gets to choose the cake; since we all get our special day each year, nobody feels left out.

Sounds like the kids had a lot of fun! Tiramisu cake would be so delicious — I’d probably eat the whole thing! I always made a special (and secret) decorated cake for the birthday child, or if they had preferences we’d go with that (like when my daughter wanted everybody to make ice cream sundaes for her party!) They chose the restaurant we went to on their actual birthday and then choose the venue for their party. Lots of fun times! Now in their 30s, they still have that special family dinner!

Since I have an only child, he did have “lavish” parties while he was in Grade School! “Lavish” meant almost all classmates were included, plus yayas and moms when they were younger! He had lots of games and prizes for all, including consolation prizes! He had a huge cake each year since my best friend was a baker and cake decorator! But, they eventually outgrow it and by High School, he himself asked for more intimate parties for his good friends without the trimmings!

Yummy cake, variety is fun and exciting. I don’t usually get the other kids presents if it isn’t their birthday. My youngest has a birthday coming up at the end of May. In fact, he was already talking about it. Silly boy.

My kids are all grown, but we had many special celebrations over the years. One year we had a pizza/cupcake party. I had the dough ready and the kids each made a small pizza with the toppings they wanted and then decorated a cupcake for dessert.

Its a lovely post, enjoyed your write-up and the pictures are stunning. Birthdays are special to children and gifts are the highlight of the evening. The glint in your boys’ eyes say it all 🙂 . In India birthdays are big, great planning goes into making it memorable for our kids. Birthday at home is now passe, special venues like McDonald’s or Pizza Hut are the order of the day. Special party-bags or return gift for the friends take up so much of the planning time. But all the hard work is worth it when we see that smile on the little angels 😀

I’ve just attended my office mate’s daughter’s first birthday party. They had no gifts for the child but only offered prayers. Somehow it made sense. They think that the material things would not be able to surpass the meaning of their prayers.